IHS CERAWeek ‘Innovation Pioneers’ look to the future of energy tech

IHS CERAWeek kicks off Monday with a weeklong lineup of presentations and panels from energy experts from around the world.

One of the highlights for all of those interested in energy technology is the “Energy Innovation Pioneers” presentations, held the mornings of March 4, 5 and 6. These presentations will likely focus on new technology developments that can improve both the safety and efficiency in oil and gas operations, experts said.

For the presentations, Colorado-based IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS) selected 17 groundbreaking energy technology companies from around the world. A handful of these companies have operations in or are based in Houston, including itRobotics Inc. and Sekal AS.

The Houston Business Journal talked to these two companies about their technologies and what they see for the future of energy innovation.

itRobotics

Houston-based itRobotics focuses on making oil and gas tubular and pipe infrastructure safe and reliable.

Anouar Jamoussi, itRobotics’ president and CEO, said he hopes to use the “Energy Innovation Pioneers” presentation as a platform to showcase the company’s technology and be part of the discussion about raising safety standards.

“I think that people are aware of (oil and gas) accidents, and I’m not going to be going to (CERAWeek) to tell companies about safety. But we want to help raise the level of awareness about safety and show how we can help them,” Jamoussi said.

Regarding Houston’s energy technology scene, Jamoussi said he thinks energy companies should be more open to testing new technologies.

“It took us almost 10 years to get to this point, and the oil and gas industry is notorious for being careful with the adoption of new technologies,” Jamoussi said. “But I think there is progress. The Houston Technology Center’s name and reputation is growing by the day, but at the end of the day … I think we should promote some more risk taking in investments in new technology, even if some of the money may be lost.”

Sekal

Norway-based Sekal is coming to IHS CERAWeek with a new software technology that can help drilling companies detect issues that could lead to problems down the line.

The company established a Houston presence less than a year ago, and Bill Chmela, the Houston-based president of Sekal’s Americas division, said that in 2014, he sees the small local office, which only has about six full and part-time employees, growing to 15 people.

Sekal’s software is designed for offshore drilling companies, and it can monitor drilling conditions and model drilling operations in real time. The software also can be used to automate some drilling equipment to fix issues.

“(CERAWeek) is a great way to get an update on the industry, and for our company, it is an opportunity to get more exposure,” Chmela said. “Our technology has been in a research lab in Norway for the past decade.”

As for trends in energy technology that Chmela expects to see featured at CERAWeek, he said he expects to see an emphasis on making technology safer.

“One of the topics is trying to avoid failures, which is what we do, and a lot of other trends are to increase efficiency,” Chmela said. “But we are trying to prevent some of the major problems that exist in drilling today. And we are preventing them with a software solution—a lot of other people have hardware solutions.”